While disposable test packs for use in automatic analysis equipment have been known in the past, such packs have presented difficulties in construction and operation whenever their use as disposable cuvettes has been a design requirement. Typically, such a pack provides a single reaction chamber which also doubles as a cuvette through which light must be passed when an optical reading is taken. Not only must the dimensions and optical quality of the opposing transparent walls be precisely controlled during manufacture, but the spacing between those walls must be carefully maintained when the pack is used as a cuvette. Variations in such spacing which might be occasioned, for example, by the highly pliable nature of the material from which the bag-like chamber is formed, could have a substantial effect on the absorbence values and that in turn could result in possible errors in diagnosis. Such problems would be multiplied if the teachings of the prior art were embodied in a pack having multiple chambers for simultaneously performing a number of tests, a possible reason why disposable packs for use in conducting profile analyses have been generally unknown and unavailable in the past.
The state of the art is further indicated by the following U.S. Pats. and the references cited therein: Nos. 3,770,382, 3,476,515, 3,775,595, 3,504,376, 3,497,320, 3,554,705, 3,526,480, 3,477,821, 3,477,822, 3,480,398, 3,480,399, 3,545,934, 3,545,935, 3,582,285, 3,582,283, 3,703,336, 3,718,439, 3,540,858, 3,540,857, 3,540,856, and 3,532,470.